News Balance: This week’s PFM news

Welcome to News Balance, our new weekly blog that recaps the changing face of public financial management (PFM).

From government contracts, updated procurement policy, to ERP fails, FreeBalance is your one stop shop for staying up to date on PFM reform around the world.

As a forward-thinking software company, we’ll also touch on stories that relate to topics such as, big data, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, sustainability, cloud computing and information that we believe will be of interest to all levels of government and its citizens.

Thumbs up. That’s the resounding response from the tech world after the Bulgarian Parliament passed amendments to its Electronic Governance Act requiring all software written for the government to be open source, making custom software procured by the government accessible to everyone. […continued]

Working to rid its independent transport sector of fossil fuels by 2030, Sweden has opened up its first electrified highway. The eHighway will cover a two-kilometer stretch of public road to the north of Stockholm and will play host to a two-year trial to further the country’s shift to a carbon-free road freight industry. Kudos to the Swedes! […continued]

Taking another step towards modernizing the procurement process, the World Banks launched a new ICT-based tracking and monitoring tool to make the procurement processes speedier and more flexible, while promoting transparency and accountability. […continued]

High fives all around, or in the case of the African Development Bank (AfDB), there are five areas of focus that will help accelerate economic transformation in Africa. According to the AfDB, the ‘High 5’ are: Light up and power Africa; feed Africa; industrialize Africa; integrate Africa; and improve the quality of life for people in Africa. […continued]

Is it just me or are more and more cities getting smarter? According to consultancy firm Markets & Market, I’m on the right track. By 2020, the Latin American smart city market is expected to grow 19.4% per year, reaching US$758 billion. […continued]

This is what you call a less than glowing review. A new report from Nucleus Research found that six out of 10 existing customers wouldn’t buy the same solution from SAP again. When asked if they would consider a future solution, in all markets except ERP those same six out of 10 indicated they would not consider SAP’s future offerings. […continued]

The Asian Development Bank has its arrow aimed directly at corruption. Earlier this week, the ADB updated its anti-corruption policy to help member countries address the methods of tax secrecy and evasion unearthed in leaks like the Panama Papers. […continued]

To the cloud! It looks like more and more countries and organizations are continuing to discover the benefits of cloud computing. And when it comes to public cloud services, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is projected to grow 18.3% in 2016 to total $879.3 million, up from $743.1 million in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. […continued]